Innu-aimun

Canadian ethnographer Michael K. Foster wrote of the Innu language that it appeared well before the ducks, partridge and common teal of our woodlands had ever heard a syllable of French or English.

According to Danielle Cyr, Innu-aimun, like many other First Nations languages, is polysynthetic, that is, it offers the possibility of constructing words so complex that each may incorporate as much meaning as is contained in an entire sentence in another language, such as English.

Linguist Gerard McNulty, author of an Innu grammar, praised the harmonious operation of the Montagnais intellect, revealed in the way the language is structured. It is true that the Innu language, developed by a nomadic people of hunter-fisher-gatherers over many millennia, makes it possible to describe the geography, fauna, plants and other parts of the boreal forest in great detail. Innu has some twenty terms for caribou, for example, indicating not only the animal’s sex but also other characteristics such as age, provenance and physical condition.

Innu-aimun as a polysynthetic language

Here are two examples of the polysynthetic characteristic of the Innu language: